Sarkozy inaugurates Paris campaign headquarters

The six hundred square metre offices are in the capital’s middle-class 15th arrondissement, a deliberate choice by the president who says these are the voters he hopes to attract in his bid to win a second term in office.

“This is a middle-class area and these are the people I first want to address,” he said.

All about 2012 election

Sarkozy’s office itself is said to have a television surrounded by two white sofas. The photos on his wall include one of his wife Carlo Bruni-Sarkozy in South Africa with Nelson Mandela. As well as books by photographer Raymond Depardon, the president also has a collection of CDs by French rocker Johnny Hallyday.

The modest size of the offices has been compared favourably to those of Sarkozy’s main rival, Socialist Party candidate François Hollande, whose headquarters are housed in one thousand square metres in the chic 7th arrondissement.

“People say to me it is not very big, but yes we don’t need to have big offices,” explained Sarkozy. “When you have a large office you want to stay in the office. We want to go out into the field to meet the French people.”